What you need to know about treadmill desks

Even if you exercise before or after work and on the weekends, all of those hours sitting on the job are hurting your health. Chances are, you’re not going to change your career for that reason, but you can change how you work at it. Dan Gaz, physical activity and assessment program manager at the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program in Rochester, Minnesota, observes that our sedentary work lives need not be quite so sedentary. “Treadmill desks are a great way to incorporate more movement into normally sedentary scenarios or situations.” Your low metabolism may be caused by your job, rather than your genes, to the extent it has you sitting for hours on end, research shows. A treadmill desk can help you achieve more movement in your work day, Gaz suggests, with a word of caution: “Just as we weren’t meant to sit all day, we certainly can’t walk all day long.” He suggests using it periodically throughout the day, rather than continually.

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Context: Daniel Gaz is a manager with the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program,which is redefining healthy living. It’s a comprehensive, whole-body wellness experience guided by medical research and evidence-based medicine to offer guests trusted solutions to improve quality of life.